Technical Advisor for HIV and TB (3 Job Vacancies)-Uganda Jobs

Organisation: Jhpiego

Funding Source: USAID

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About Jhpiego:

Jhpiego is an international, non-profit health organization affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University. For 40 years and in over 155 countries, Jhpiego has worked to prevent the needless deaths of women and their families. Jhpiego works with health experts, governments and community leaders to provide high-quality health care for their people. Jhpiego develops strategies to help countries care for themselves by training competent health care workers, strengthening health systems and improving delivery of care.

Job Summary: The Technical Advisor for HIV and TB will offer technical and program oversight and direction in the areas of HIV and TB for up to three upcoming USAID regional integrated health programs (HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, nutrition, family planning, and maternal, neonatal and child health care) in Uganda. Jhpiego is recruiting for up to three HIV and TB Advisors one each to be based in Eastern Region, East-Central Region, and/or South Western Region in Uganda. This program aims to increase utilization of health services by strengthening systems and improve quality of integrated health services. The project will operate over a five-year period. Responsibilities include providing leadership and technical guidance in the development and implementation of HIV and TB activities under the leadership of the Chief of Party and in coordination with other Jhpiego Technical Advisors, and utilizing and contributing to cross-cutting approaches, such as performance improvement, as well as, annual phasing in of activities This position will ensure the technical and methodological soundness of activities and, in collaboration with the project team and partners, support the design of service delivery strategies, based on sound and current scientific evidence. This position is contingent upon award from USAID.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Provide technical oversight, strategic direction and ensure appropriate support for the implementation of program activities in HIV and TB
• Guide the integration of HIV and TB services with FP/RH, nutrition, maternal and newborn health, and malaria
• Refine evidence-based clinical training materials, job aids, and curricula, supervisory systems and other training materials needed for implementation of HIV and TB to meet the needs of USAID and the Government of Uganda
• Build and mentor the capacity gaps at individual and organizational level in HIV and TB including but not limited to:
• Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and provider-initiated testing and counseling (PICT)
• Promoting and supporting couples counseling;
• Expanding provider-initiated HTC, task shifting and demand creation, especially aimed at males;
• Increasing the percentage of persons tested and counseled for HIV;
• Increasing knowledge and positive attitudes of health care providers toward HIV services to encourage counseling, testing and referrals;
• Increasing supply and quality of HTC by providing facility-based services to adults and children;
• Facilitating the scale-up of routine, confidential CT services;
• Training lay counselors in household CT and deploying lay counselors in hard-to-reach areas;
• Ensuring quality HIV CT services are available to the most at-risk populations
• Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT),
• Improving continuity of care and follow-up for HIV-positive mothers and infants;
• Ensuring the quality of rapid HIV testing and routine, confidential CT capacity;
• Strengthening the relationships between the community and the health facilities
• Integrating couples counseling within PMTCT services;
• Supervising the development of ANC as the main entry point for all PMTCT services and other RH activities
• Improving the TB clinical care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, STIs and related OIs
• Enhancing laboratory diagnostic capacity and the TB clinical care and treatment of OIs;
• Interventions for co-occurring diseases impacting HIV-infected patients including TB;
• Expanding HIV/STI/TB surveillance programs and strengthening laboratory support;
• Intensifying TB case identification, infection control and screeningof TB in HIV-infected individuals
• Drive voluntary medical male circumcision
• Ensure sufficient health care providers are trained in order to rapidly scale up quality VMMC services
• Collaborate with the Health Ministry (MOH) to develop and/or revise comprehensive national Safe Male Circumcision Guidelines and protocols
• Implement innovative approaches to recruit and retain MC providers
• Develop and Implement a quality assurance system that ensures that MC services provided under this project meet internationally recognized standards of quality
• Take lead “train the trainer” sessions, site strengthening, in-service and/or pre-service education, follow-up and supportive supervision to project-supported health facilities, as required by program activities
• Work with other colleagues to develop a cadre of HIV and TB champions who will facilitate links to other community-level health programs/services
• Coordinate assessments, site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across program sites as required by program activities
• Lead the formulation of approaches for scale up of HIV and TB services, including accessing hard-to-reach populations and integration of services
• Actively participate in all Technical Advisory Group Meetings, and represent Jhpiego in professional forums by participating and presenting in pertinent meetings and conferences, as well as technical working groups
• Analyze potential HIV and TB strategies within the context of the program and explain these, as necessary, to policymakers, funding agencies, and/or program staff
• Work with health care providers, local authorities, community members and program team members to identify clinical, community-based service delivery issues that impede access to care
• Identify appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address HIV and TB service delivery gaps
• Identify clinical training needs and assist in the design and implementation of measures to address those needs
• Formulate and test sustainable solutions to service delivery gaps, utilizing cross-cutting approaches such as performance and quality improvement and in-service training/pre-service education
• Advocate with national, regional and community-level health institutions to raise awareness about their role in improving health outcomes in HIV and TB
• Guide Ministry of Health, professional associations, other national stakeholders in the revision/development of evidenced-based standards for competency in HIV and TB
• Mobilize international level clinical/technical expertise to resolve clinical issues that shape or effect local public policy or program design
• Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, especially the Ministry of Health and other implementing partners, in order to ensure that all activities conform to the requirements and regulations
• Conduct regular reporting to the Chief of Party, and program and technical staff, of successes, challenges and lessons learned in implementation related to areas of technical expertise
• Document and maintain an inventory of successful tools and approaches for HIV and TB
• Author and co-author abstracts and presentations for journals and conference
• Supervise technical staff
• Manage technical contributions of subgrantees, including providing scopes of work
• Maintain excellent relationships with USAID and in-country stakeholders and develop rapid responses to USAID/DC and Mission requests
• Work closely with the Chief of Party and/or Country Director on setting program priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts.
• Work with M&E staff to design, implement a plan to track data/results related to HIV and TB
• Provide technical leadership to the development the project strategic plan, work plan, and program monitoring, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, USAID and other stakeholders
• Ensure timely implementation of all program inputs related to HIV and TB, including planning and implementing assessments, site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across program sites, in close coordination and collaboration with USAID, relevant ministries of health
• Assist in the preparation of donor reports and project reports
• Oversee data collection, analysis and development of conclusions and recommendations to further strengthen program implementation
• Ensure availability of resources/facilitate the procurement of equipment and supplies required for project implementation
• Coordinate and monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of short-term consultants as
• required

Qualifications, Skills and Experience: 

• The Technical Advisors should possess medical degrees (doctor or nursing) or Master’s degrees in Public Health
• At least seven years’ experience applying HIV prevention, care and treatment and TB;
• A minimum of five years’ experience in managing $10M per year in donor-funded projects and in the design and implementation of overseas health projects; preferably in the East and Southern Africa;
• Qualification as a “master trainer”; experience training health workers on clinical aspects related to family planning/reproductive health
• Experience building capacity at individual and organizational levels
• Skill in at least two or more of the following technical areas: strengthening service delivery programs, training, pre-service education, performance and quality improvement, monitoring and evaluation
• Prior work experience with a mix of practical technical skills in HIV and TB necessary for strengthening HIV and TB service delivery at the regional, national, clinical and community-level
• The ability to liaise with senior MOH officials and dignitaries, executives of NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, the for-profit business community, and senior members of the donor community;
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of Ugandan healthcare system, particularly the public health system, experience living and working in Uganda preferred
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentations skills in English
• Strong skills in word processing and Excel spread sheets
• Familiarity with USAID or other USG administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems
• Proven track record managing a project team composed of several technical experts and fostering team work
• Ability to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in national programs and technical staff in the areas
• Excellent written, presentation, communication and organizational skills in both English
• Ability to travel up to 50% time
• Ugandan nationals strongly encouraged to apply

How to Apply:
If you feel you can serve Jhpiego in its USAID Projects as one of the Technical Advisors for HIV and TB, please feel free to visit the web link below to express your further review full job requirements on recruitment website and Apply.

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